Heat and smoke protective hood

ABSTRACT

A heat and smoke protective hood comprises a bag-like head covering 1 of a heat-resistant, substantially gas-impermeable sheet material adapted to fit loosely over the head of a user, filter means 5 in an aperture 6 of the head covering to remove harmful ingredients from inhaled air, a stretchable annular neck portion 2 attached around the open end 3 of the head covering to form a seal around the user&#39;s neck, and a flexible annular skirt 8 of heat and flame resistant material attached around the circumference of the head covering so as to hang down around the neck portion and user&#39;s neck to protect both. Preferably, the skirt 8 also covers the filter means 5.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a heat and smoke protective hood which issuitable for use in fire emergencies.

A heat and smoke protective hood is known which consists of a bag-likehead covering of a heat-resistant, substantially gas-impermeable sheetmaterial adapted to fit loosely over the head of the wearer, filtermeans provided across an aperture of the head covering to filter harmfulingredients from air inhaled by the wearer through said aperture andfilter means, and a neck portion of stretchable material attached to theopen end of the head covering and having a hole through which the headof the wearer may be inserted by stretching the neck portion, saidstretchable material being such as to revert to a less stretchedcondition in which it embraces the neck of the wearer.

The effectiveness of such a hood is dependent on the specification ofthe materials, in particular, their heat and flame retardant properties.Typically, the head covering has been composed of a polyimide film soldby Du Pont de Nemours International S.A. under the registered trade mark"KAPTON", and the neck portion has been composed of a flame retardantpolyurethane. However, there is some difficulty in selecting an idealmaterial for the neck portion which is heat and flame retardant and alsosufficiently elastic to stretch over a user's head and still relax toform a good neck seal, especially allowing for a wide range of headsizes of adults and children.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a head and smokeprotective hood in which the above difficulty is reduced or overcome.

This is achieved by providing the aforesaid known hood with an annularskirt of a flexible, heat and flame resistant material attached to thehood covering around its circumference so as to hang down over theoutside of the neck portion and protect it and the neck of the wearerfrom heat and flames. The skirt therefore serves the function of heatand flame protection, and the neck portion can be composed of a materialwhich is primarily selected to be sufficiently elastic to stretch overany size head and form a good seal around the neck.

Preferably, the skirt also hangs down over the filter means, the skirtbeing air-permeable so as to allow the passage of inhaled air, and alsoserving to protect the filter against heat and flames. However, theskirt is preferably attached below the level of the user's eyes so thatit does not obstruct the view of the user through the head covering,which is either transparent or has a window in it.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawing shows a heat and smoke protective hoodaccording to the invention as worn by a user.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The illustrated heat and smoke protective hood comprises a head covering1 in the form of an open ended bag composed of transparent polyimidesheet material which is heat and flame resistant. An example of suchmaterial is that sold by Du Pont de Nemours International under theirregistered trade mark "KAPTON". An annular neck portion 2 is connectedaround the lower edge 3 of the open end of the bag-like head covering 1and is composed of an elastic sheet material such as latex or neoprenelatex sheet so that it will readily stretch as the head of a user isinserted through the central aperture 4 and then relaxes to form a sealaround the user's neck. A filter pad 5 is sealed across an opening 6 inthe side wall of the head covering 1, and is composed of suitablematerial such as activated charcoal cloth to absorb harmful materials inthe air as it is drawn through it by the user inhaling. Preferably, twosuch pads 5 are provided in the front and rear walls of the headcovering so as to extend around substantially the whole circumference ofthe head covering.

The particular improvement of the illustrated hood according to thepresent invention consists in providing the annular skirt 8 of aflexible heat and flame resistant material around the outside of thehead covering 1, being attached to the head covering along its top edge9 and hanging down around the neck portion 2 and the neck of the user soas to protect both from heat and flames. As illustrated, the skirt 8 ispreferably attached to the hood covering below the level of the user'seyes but above the filter pad 5 so that the latter is also protected Theskirt 8 may be composed, for example, of the material sold by Du Pont deNemours under their registered trade mark "NOMEX", or that sold byUniversal Carbon Fibres Limited under their trade mark "PANOTEX". Thismaterial may be woven or knitted and in the latter form may bestretchable.

I claim:
 1. A heat and smoke protective hood comprising a bag-like headcovering of a heat-resistant substantially gas-impermeable sheetmaterial adapted to fit loosely over the head of the wearer; filtermeans provided in an aperture of the hood covering to filter harmfulingredients from air inhaled by the wearer through said aperture and aneck portion of stretchable material attached to the open end of thehead covering and having a hole through which the head of the wearer maybe inserted by stretching the neck portion, said stretchable materialbeing such as to revert to a less stretched condition in which itembraces the neck of the wearer; and an annular skirt of a flexible,heat-resistant material attached to the head covering around itscircumference so as to hang down over the outside of the neck portionand the filter means to protect the neck portion, the filter means andthe neck of the wearer from heat and flames.
 2. A hood as claimed inclaim 1, in which the annular skirt is air-permeable to allow thepassage of air inhaled by the wearer.
 3. A hood as claimed in claim 1,in which the annular skirt is composed of a stretchable material.
 4. Ahood as claimed in claim 1, in which the head covering has transparentareas which in use are located in front of the eyes of the wearer, andin which the annular skirt is attached to the head covering below thetransparent areas so that it does not obstruct the view of the wearer.